In which I meet Eyeshine
When I found Power Rangers on Netflix several weeks back (which has led to the series of blog posts recently), the boy and I started playing the “where are they now?” game. I found that Johnny Yong Bosch has an extensive anime voice acting career and a band called Eyeshine. It was love at first listen for both of us. When I discovered that they were going to play at an anime convention less than an hour away, we decided that we were going to go one way or another.
We had a great weekend. As it turns out, Matt and I know a lot less about anime than we thought, but we had a lot of fun, and came away with several titles to check out. But I’m sure Matt would agree that Eyeshine was the highlight for us. They’re really good live, for one thing. When we saw Muse last year, that concert was awesome in part because of all of their gimmicks. Eyeshine doesn’t have any of those, they have to entertain purely based on their music, and they succeed big time. I don’t know much about the technical side of things; I’m sure Matt could tell you technically why they rocked – my point is just that they did. The fact that they were having a great time was evident, and I feel like they would play the same for a thousand people as they did for our crowd of one hundred or so. I enjoyed hearing Johnny tell about the inspiration behind some of their songs – particularly “Our Whole Lives Tonight“. It was interesting, and it made a point of connection with the fans. Maybe we hadn’t been in those exact circumstances, but everyone had something they could apply the sentiment to.
After the concert, the band had a meet and greet. I’m terrible at this sort of thing. Maybe I’m somewhat polished and graceful from this side of the screen, but in person I’m all urk uhh and durp. As I watched them laugh and interact with fans, it occurred to me that they seem like the kind of people you could share a meal with. They’re so nice and easygoing – normal people who just happened to get up on stage and rock out for an hour. I’ve had the chance to meet other bands/artists, and Eyeshine were by far the best. It made an impression on me – urk uhh durp and all.
Definitely go check out the Eyeshine site, listen, and pick up their Tone of Echoes cd while you’re at it. I don’t recommend things unless I really believe it’s worth your time, and I’m excited to point you to something this good.
I’ve run out of words, so I’ll wrap this up with a picture.
Tags: bands, eyeshine, johnny yong bosch, music, power rangers